Musical Settings

Milton's "Paradise Lost" as Opera

Krzysztof Penderecki composed an opera called Paradise Lost in two acts (divided into 42 scenes), with an English libretto by Christopher Fry, based on Milton’s epic. Penderecki called it a sacra rappresentazione, written on commission for the 1976 USA Bicentennial. The first performance was on 11/29/1978, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The same production was given at La Scala, Milan in 1979. Other productions were mounted in Stuttgart in April 1979 (touring to Munich and elsewhere); another in 2001 in Münster; and another in Breslau by Opera Wroclawska for the season 2009-10. For full details and illustrations see P. G. Stanwood, 'Paradise Lost, Epic and Opera', Early Modern Literary Studies 15.3 (2011). For a recorded performance of Act I Part 1 (51 minutes) see YouTube. The three further segments are also on YouTube.

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